Paying it forward doesn’t always have to be big. Small actions can have a huge impact. BeNeighborly brings together people in need with people who can help giving everyone the chance to personalize contribution and follow the wave of lives that are touched.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Business Case for BeNeighborly

Virtual gifts and virtual goods have exploded into the social media scene, with daily reach exceeding 500MM users and generating serious revenue.

Users are sending and receiving everything from digital buttons and pixelated flowers to virtual drinks and electronic baked goods. Millions of transactions per day push billions of bits onto the web without a single dollar benefiting the real-goods marketplaces.

This fundamental desire to share – to give and to receive -- has become twisted in this internet era. The intention of giving is real, but it has somehow been cheapened by the virtual aspect of it.

BeNeighborly untwists this model, restores the pureness to millions, and reintroduces the real-goods economy into the equation.

i think this is a great idea hence why i am fighting to be chairperson via the startupbus game http://game.thestartupbus.com/i/bf60bc0

have you also considered adding gifts like 'two hours of babysitting'- so for example my neighbor can go out with her husband for dinner'? time is money and it would fit nicely on the Be Neighbor.ly theme while leading to what i think would be an even bigger adoption...and ultimately a purchase of real goods because then maybe my neighbor would buy me a mani-ped to thank me!

Thanks for the suggestion Daniela. In our vision, we include services and goods in the category of gifts. So if what you want is someone to babysit for a bit, that's what someone will come along and grant!